


Breathe in and out

by Altiria



Series: Whumptober 2020 [13]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Naruto
Genre: Delayed Drowning, Drowning, F/M, Uchiha Massacre, Whumptober 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-14
Updated: 2020-10-14
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:28:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26999683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Altiria/pseuds/Altiria
Summary: Holly finds him drowned, blinded, and broken. She finds the one she’s sought for all her life moments before he leaves the world entirely, and she clutches to him hoping that her grip alone will keep Shisui from slipping away where she can not, nor can ever truly follow.No 13. BREATHE IN BREATHE OUTDelayed Drowning | Chemical Pneumonia | Oxygen Mask
Relationships: Harry Potter/Uchiha Shisui
Series: Whumptober 2020 [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1946422
Comments: 8
Kudos: 263
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	Breathe in and out

He should not be alive, should not have survived. Dying had frankly been the entire point of jumping into that part of the river. No one ever survived it, especially when they weren't fighting the current. The river was known as a location that killed civilians and shinobi alike. It's slick walks, huge piercing rocks, the rushing rapids below. If you fell in, there would have been no chance for rescue, for survival, you were dead.

And yet here he was. Floating in the reeds, his leg tangled in something he couldn't even begin to fathom. Body broken, but lungs still miraculously pulling in air. Shisui was alive despite everything leaning toward the opposite. He should have died from blood loss, internal or external, should have drowned, should have fallen to the poison the Root had pumped his body with. But he wasn't, Shisui was very much alive and being saved. 

Thin callused hands clutched at his biceps - not a kunoichi, but not a civilian either. Someone was pulling him from the water's grip as if it had no claim to him. They brought him closer so that Shisui could smell them; the scent of water, ink, and something flowery permeated his senses. While a panting grumbling voice - a woman's - sounded in his ears, her feet slid in the mud, squished in the water as she tugged him steadily free. 

Shisui was alive despite the impossible. A stranger was saving him.

"Hey? Are you dead?" 

Shisui kept his eyes closed. If they stayed like that, he could pretend, for a moment, that he wasn't eternally blind, that he truly just had his eyes closed. Shisui wished he could actually believe it; unfortunately, he was painfully aware that he'd never see again. Shisui knew that the one way he could find his soulmate was forever lost to him. That he'd never lock his gaze with theirs and feel that instant connection. 

"You're breathing, so you have to be… hey?" Fingers brushed his hair away from his face. She was gentle in a way that made him sure that it was a civilian touching him, a civilian that managed to save him, despite how impossible the idea was. 

Cold fingertips glided over his skin to reveal his face. There, the fingers stilled. She had brushed the hair from away from his eyes, and Shisui couldn't help it; he flinched. The hand instantly recoiled, wary she'd hurt him before she breathed a soft 'oh.' 

The sunkenness of his eyelids had to have told her the truth. He had no eyes. 

He had no eyes. 

But she didn't comment on it as he'd expected her to as everyone Shisui would ever meet in the future would. Instead, she said: "are you awake? I know CPR, but I've never actually had to do it on anyone, so… just, let me know if you're alive?" 

"I'm-" ouch, dammit, ouch, "alive-" his lungs were on fire. Shisui instantly started coughing, struggled because his body wanted to heave and yet he was broken, and trapped on his back. The positioning made it nearly impossible to properly cough, let alone take it air- her hands met his back. She hauled Shisui into a seated position. 

Shisui, had he been able to breathe, would have thanked her. However, as it was, he was too busy attempting to hack out his lungs. 

Her fingers gently pressed into his back, she started to rub gently as he road out the attack, but it wasn't- it wasn't getting better- it was getting- worse. He tried to suck in a desperate breath, but he couldn't- no air was coming- he was suffocating on dry land. Choking to death without a thing in his throat. He couldn't breathe.

"Bloody- hold on- I've got you-"

Shisui had tried to die and had dropped into the river, hoping that his death would distract Danzo long enough so that Itachi could save their clan. He'd been prepared… and he'd been saved. Shisui hadn't even gotten the chance to adjust to that before he… he started dying anyway. He wasn't even in the river anymore, and he was-

Something pressed to his chest. Maybe a weapon, perhaps a finger, it didn't matter anymore really- he couldn't breathe- couldn't breathe- couldn't breathe- and the woman who tried to save him said something alien. Something that made no logical sense and- something wrenched at his lungs. It felt like a hiccup but a thousand times worse. Like his lungs had spasmed. Like he'd just been punched in them but-

Shisui gasped.

-Air filled his lungs so swiftly that Shisui was left reeling. Left coughing frantically as he breathed for the first time in minutes. He grabbed at his chest, tried to dig into his skin because it burned- it burned and felt hands catch his own. 

"It's alright, just breathe, calm down and breathe." She was the most soothing thing he'd ever experienced. Though that might have to do with the circumstance. Miraculously though, her calm nudges worked, Shisui was, after several minutes, slowly able to slow his gasps. He was able to take in full breathes until he was almost breathing normally. This took nearly twenty minutes, or so his internal clock told him, but she never stopped. The woman held onto his hands and worked with him non-stop until he was finally sitting calmly. 

He was alive. 

The thought was an alien as the word she'd used. 

"Alright?" 

"No," he rasped, "not really." A parody of a smile lit his face, and Shisui wondered what the woman's expression would be doing, he'd never be able to tell. He wouldn't even learn what she looked like, if she wore their hitai-ate, if she was a civilian, if her hair was dark like his or not. 

An amused sound left her; "that's fair, you did almost drown… twice. But you're alive now, so that's good." She gripped his hand tight, and Shisui appreciated it. He could track her location with his other senses, but he appreciated the fact that he knew exactly where both her hands were. She couldn't stab him if he knew where her hands were, funny that he was actually concerned about her that after just purposely jumping to his death. "And I know you can't exactly see me, but I can see you, which is important." 

"Why?" Shisui tilted his head toward where he thought hers would be.

"Ah, tha-ts… err…" There was a blush in her voice, an obvious one, "be-cause well… because I can see you." 

"Not to sound stupid, but… that's important why?" He wasn't trying to be obtuse. He really was rather confused by her point and mildly offended. She had been discreet before, now suddenly she wasn't- then she interrupted his thought.

"As in, I can see you." The emphasis was different that time and Shisui felt himself still slightly. She wasn't saying that- no, that wasn't possible- "merlin's beard- you're my soulmate stupid!" 

Oh

Shisui suddenly burst out into pained laughter. Well, didn't that just fit. He'd found his soulmate blind after trying to kill himself. That was just his luck. Damn, the universe was cruel. 

A hand swatted his palm, gentle and not ill-intended. "Mean!" she proclaimed with a hefty amount of hurt in her voice, but- she didn't understand. She had no idea what he'd just done, what he'd sacrificed, what was happening in the village with his clan.

"S-sorry, it's just… the timing-" his laughter was manic, frantic and Shisui knew he'd have to explain. To explain that he'd been searching for her his entire life. He had looked into the eyes of every person he passed in the hopes that he'd feel that connection form. That he'd feel that sync. He'd hoped against hope he wouldn't find it in an enemy he was about to kill, but had still chanced it and looked into every one of his kills eyes. She… didn't know that he'd finally given up as Danzo's hand plunged into his skull to take his-

And now he'd never feel that connection. He'd never feel it because he didn't have his eyes-

"Then I'll just have to regrow them for you." She said after he got out the barest of explanations. She spoke a sentence, spoke words that didn't quite make sense to him as they linked together because people couldn't do that. It was beyond chakra, and yet she'd just- "come on, up you get. We'll go to my tent, it's nearby- oh you can't see it, well it's over in the forest to our left. Once we get there, I can take a look at your injuries, and hopefully, I should have a potion to do that, but if I don't, I can always brew one." She tugged at his hands, pulled him into a standing position, escorted him blindly forward.

Shisui had never felt quite so uncertain. He was tripping, stumbling over things he couldn't see. He was blind in both the figurative and literal meanings. Yet somehow he felt… safe. Which was an utterly alien idea. 

Perhaps that was what a sync was supposed to feel like. Maybe Shisui had managed it even without his eyes. Because as a shinobi, he really shouldn't trust anyone like this and hadn't beyond Itachi. 

"Duck for the tree, almost there." 

"Shisui… I'm Shisui-" he felt a branch catch at his hair, but he didn't run into the tree, so he took it as a win. "-Uchiha…" 

"I'm Holly." He could just picture her turning toward him, all smiles with a touch of mild concern, "Holly Potter, and I'm going to make sure you see again, Shisui. That's a promise!" 

Somehow, he didn't doubt that as all. 


End file.
